Let's Read All what is left, it's the old photos (Let's Read: Maus)

[Occasionally Fatal]

Artie does seem unreasonably frustrated ("murderer" !?), but on the other hand his dad comes across as weirdly smug about destroying the journals. On the subject of miserly old people, I don't remember enough about my grandpa to know if he was miserly per se, but he had legendary frugality as a result of going through the great depression. My dad has stories about him doing things like saving soap bar slivers. You know, like when you use a bar of soap, at some point it becomes really thin and basically unusable because it will break and you throw it out. He would save these slivers/shavings of soap and then rubber band them together. AS GOOD AS A NEW BAR OF SOAP. Anyway, people in the family kind of complained about it or at least rolled their eyes a bit, but then when he died he left all his children a bunch of money that helped put his grand kids through college.

My point, in a roundabout way, is that when people survive difficult events, it tends to alter their lives forever. You have to consider that they survived, and may not have without being able to adapt certain attitudes that seem stupid and unreasonable in better times. My dad knew a guy who would always spit in his food before he ate. Immediately upon hearing this, you go what is wrong with this guy? But then you learned he was in prison for a long time, and he learned to spit on his food so no one would beat him up and take his food. Now he's got a weird and unpleasant quirk for life... but he survived.

So basically, Artie should probably just take a chill pill and be glad he even exists. I find it somewhat amusing he wants his story to have a more sympathetic character and be less "racist." Certain things shouldn't be done to anyone, regardless of their sympathy quotient. Feels like there's a thread/connection here back into what made the holocaust possible in the first place; I wonder if he's going to explore it further.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, that's a bit silly. I've had my share of differences with my dad, but this doesn't seem reasonable... though I guess in a family like that, you can't expect much reason.

I'm not sure it's meant to be reasonable. Artie's actually being a dick; he's clearly now deeply involved with the creation of this comic book, but he's come to a creative dead end - as he says to Mala, his father is an old miserly crank, which means that the protagonist isn't sympathetic enough; he needs 'more balance', a more sensitive take on things - and it's only when he realises this that he starts talking about getting his mother's notebooks out, instead of just asking his dad about her, which he does before without concern. Deep down, he's not pissed off because his father's destroyed deeply personal memories of his mother, he's pissed off because he won't be able to manipulate those memories into useful material for his book, which he knows it needs. So he just vents that frustration on his dad.

Actually, the more important part is that he never heard his mother's side of the story, and now he never can.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

That's kind of on him, though. Couldn't he have asked his mom when she was alive? Or when did she commit suicide? I mean, yeah it sucks, but if he had shown interest in the subject earlier... but I guess I don't know his age. Still.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

We'll get a lot more into Art's hang-ups concerning his parents and dead brother in future updates.

In this case it's important to remember that for all intents and purposes Vladek did "murder" the possibility of Art ever knowing his late mother better.

 

[SoupNazi]

We'll get a lot more into Art's hang-ups concerning his parents and dead brother in future updates.

In this case it's important to remember that for all intents and purposes Vladek did "murder" the possibility of Art ever knowing his late mother better.

Yeah - but calling him a murderer - when he probably already has to deal with a lot of guilt about his wive's suicide - is a bit too much.

 

[Tigranes]

I never read all of Maus, but as far as I remember, he doesn't end up going MURDERER MURDERER all the time. :p

Some of Vladek's habits aren't that out of the world. I collect napkins from cafes, etc. and use them later. I collect spare wires and plugs and such. If you go back behind my newfag generation I see people pick up 'useful' stuff on the street or have a garage full of 'useful' stuff, including my stepdad and grandma. Now, if you look at how Vladek doing things like hiding a gold watch beneath an entire can of shoe polish saves his butt on a number of occasions, and how he's clearly a bit of a builder (the bunkers, etc), I think the quirks we've seen so far aren't so strange. But yes, it is easy to see how it makes it difficult for Artie to really get more 'intimate' with his dad.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[Ulminati]

It's good to see all the negative stereotypes about jews being obsessed with money, cheating and lying are upheld in this comic

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[Kalin]

Nice, I remember reading this back in primary school. Back then I really enjoyed how Vladek was anything but a hero. The "shvartser" incident was particularly lovely.

 

[SoupNazi]

I really like how Artie turns into a kid when he gets frustrated/guilty about his father in his mind... I'd say it's a very accurate depiction of a relationship between father and son. Now post more, before I send you to the ovens!!!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Nice, I remember reading this back in primary school. Back then I really enjoyed how Vladek was anything but a hero. The "shvartser" incident was particularly lovely.

Well, he is fairly heroic in his capability, but this is contrasted heavily when we see how his experiences have left him a frail old man with failing health, and how flawed his character is. The shvartser scene in particular shows this.

I really like how Artie turns into a kid when he gets frustrated/guilty about his father in his mind... I'd say it's a very accurate depiction of a relationship between father and son.

Especially one as troubled as the one between Art and Vladek. Then again, part of why Maus is so great is that it's not only a story about his father's life, but Art's own last attempt to connect with his father as well.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Ugh, hadn't heard that detail about the bodies when they got gassed... possibly for 30 minutes.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I think the small story about the old man who tried to tell the guards he was a German just like them really highlights just how insane it all was.

 

[Tigranes]

Well, imagine being there if you actually did have a medal from the Kaiser (which is quite possible in these circumstances).

Anyway, as far as Vladek's eccentricities go, returning groceries is probably one of the best.

 

[grotsnik]

Yeah, I thought that was spot-on, especially his quite cheerfully using the details of his own horrific past to browbeat the manager into giving him five dollars off.

I really do like the whole comix-ish animal representation device, but damned if 'Frenchmen as frogs!' doesn't feel a bit facile and obvious.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3TUrbQWWE&NR=1

They MEOW! They MEOW! Right in Der Fuehrer's face!

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I think the small story about the old man who tried to tell the guards he was a German just like them really highlights just how insane it all was.

More insanity: the Incident where officer comes in, demands his boots fixed or he will kill Vladek. So he gets the boot fixed (deviously, I'll add, and kind of stupid of the guy that actually fixed it), the officer looks at it, doesn't kill him, instead brings him a sausage. This confused me at first. Why? As payment? Wouldn't the payment in this situation be his life? But then I realized, maybe he was thinking the sausage would help Vladek survive to fix more boots! Which is still, like... WTF dude. Is this really worth saving a bit of money versus taking it to a German boot fixer? Crazy.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I think the small story about the old man who tried to tell the guards he was a German just like them really highlights just how insane it all was.

More insanity: the Incident where officer comes in, demands his boots fixed or he will kill Vladek. So he gets the boot fixed (deviously, I'll add, and kind of stupid of the guy that actually fixed it), the officer looks at it, doesn't kill him, instead brings him a sausage. This confused me at first. Why? As payment? Wouldn't the payment in this situation be his life? But then I realized, maybe he was thinking the sausage would help Vladek survive to fix more boots! Which is still, like... WTF dude. Is this really worth saving a bit of money versus taking it to a German boot fixer? Crazy.

Well, I'd assume doesn't have the luxury of going to find a German bootfixer (seeing how he's not only on duty in a highly secure camp, but also in Poland), but it does show how surreal it all was. Though it also does show that even a Gestapo officer can have some kind of basic sense of decency.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Where's my daily dose of juice

 

[SoupNazi]

Seriously. DO IT!!

 

[commie]

Fucking butthurt Jews...Poles are PIGS eh? Why not make the 'chosen race' as lice or fleas then? Would make more sense for them to be parasites.

Seems to be good stuff. It feels kinda random to me the poles are pigs. Doesn't fit neatly into the cats/mice paradigm, would kind of expect like dogs or badgers or ferrets or something. And it seems classic somehow that the dad remarried and now him and Mala just make each other miserable.

It's not random. The pig is a dirty disgusting animal in the eyes of the Jews. No coincidence that this bastard is so butthurt that he made Poles into pigs. The Jews have always felt superior to and never forgave the Poles that gave them shelter from middle age persecution for doing so. Just because they suffered minor(by the standards of the time) anti-semitism due to the control of the Catholic Church in Poland(which certainly promoted anti-Jew feeling) does not excuse their acts during the war. Many Jews helped both the Nazis and the Soviets during the invasion of 1939. Others refused to fight in the Polish army. These are all documented things. I feel a strange satisfaction that their betrayal did not go unpunished.

 

[Ulminati]

This comic reinforces every negative stereotype about jews that this forum has bandied around. It's good to see the father is racist on top of his money-grubbing ways and tendency to lie, steal and manipulate people to have his way.
A shame the cats didn't finish their job on him.